Wednesday, 30 October 2013

In
my last post, about the LRDG test-game, you saw an unfinished Caproni-bomber on
the airfield, belonging to Laffe.

A
couple of mails, initially about who would get, and not get, what from the Winter
War Kickstarter, got the snowball rolling. No one wanted the Finnish bicyclists,
and by the way, I had started on my Fieseler Storch.

One
thing led to another, and a competition was on.

The
rules:

The
one (me or Laffe) to e-mail a picture of the finished plane to the others was the
winner of the competition.

The
quality of the paintjob should be good enough to post on our blogs

To
avoid a decisive victory the looser has 24 hours to finish his model. If he achieves
that, the victory is deemed a minor victory.

Prizes:

Decisive
Victory: The looser gets the bicyclists and must paint them within 3 months.
Bragging rights for the winner, and he also gets to choose the next competition.

Minor
Victory: The winner gets a limited bragging right. Thomas gets the bicyclists and can
choose the next competition.

Well,
I’m going to brag now. Guess who won. Yep, I don’t have to paint bicycle
troops, and I will decide the in-group Painting Challenge II. That challenge will see Thomas
participating also.

This
turned out to be a great way to finish a prioritized model in record-time.
Within 24 hours of me posting my picture, Laffe sent a mail of his Caproni.
Newly painted. He took the advice from Thomas, and took a pic of what was
ready. Turned out the underside wasn’t finished yet, so he swallowed the shame
and admitted humiliating defeat.

A,
sweeeeeeet.

Anyway.
The winning model, from Academy, is a Fieseler Fi. 156 Storch (which can
also be built as a Morane Saulnier MS 500/502 Criquet, used in Vietnam for
example) in 1/72.

A
straight-forward build. Some of the smaller details are on the thick side,
which is good for our wargaming uses. The canopy is a bit tricky, as it is made
from five clear-plastics pieces. I didn’t get a perfect fit and had to use some
green-stuff.

Paints used (Vallejo):

Inside
cockpit – 973 Light Sea Grey

Top
– 929 Light Brown

Underside
– 971 Green Grey

White
band – 883 Silver Grey

Propeller
– black

A
dusting of sand-coloured pigment overall, and some black pigment from the exhaust.

Tuesday, 29 October 2013

We
had a test-game of our LRDG-participation-con-game two weekends ago.

An Italian airfield attacked by a couple of LRDG vehicles with a mission to make as much mayhem as possible. You get the idea from the pictures.

Lots
of fun, and we got a lot of good ideas to incorporate in the scenario.
Apologies for the unpainted stuff in the pictures, it will hopefully be
finished before Flemcon in early December. There's also a couple of buildings missing.

This
is the game we planned to have ready two years ago (a little project, should be
finished in no time... yeah, sure...) but it has dragged on, and on. Now it
looks as if it might actually make to the table. Me, Laffe and Thomas are the
painters and organizers on this.

Anyway,
as you can see, there is a very unfinished plane on the table, and there is
another un-built plane in my plastics-and-tin-mountain. More on that in a later
post.

Alternate set-up for the airfield.

Welcome
new follower Sun of York. I haven’t found out if you have a blog or not. If you
have, then make a comment below and I’ll update the post.

This
is quite interesting. Laser cut MDF dungeon walls and such. I’m very tempted by
this, as everything to make a dungeon crawl more involved is great. The
terrain-pieces will need some textured paint to look great, but a limited amount of work will probably give great results. Run by a small company – a real
kickstarter!

Welcome
Adam Carriere with Adam’s travels (“This
blog will catalog my travels and other experiences that are not related to
gaming and re-enacting – I really like this as it is a lot about historical
buildings in the US. Check it out!) and Fencing Frog about wargaming and
re-enacting – WWII, Wild West etc, what’s not to like!

Her skin is painted as above, but with a layer of 955 Flat Flesh to get her a lighter and cleaner look.

Lips - 944 Old Rose (I should have given her mouth a redder tone, with the Old Rose for her lips. For next time)

Welcome
follower Gary Amos with the blogs Happy Valley (about life,
the Universe and sort of everything and wargaming. Nice) and Bloggers for charity
(wargaming bloggers joining together for charity – a very good cause!)

Saturday, 5 October 2013

The
last couple of weeks have been good, or bad, depending on how you look on
things.

First,
I succumbed to the temptation and fell for WWII in 28mm, specifically Winter
War and the Baker
Company kickstarter. I blame Thomas
and Laffe for this, both have
started on 28mm figures, posting them on their blogs and tempting me, and
Thomas especially as he went lyrical about this Kickstarter. Not my fault at
all….

Secondly
this guy….

Wild
West has long been something I have wanted to try, but I have always said to
myself, “Not another period”. I actually persevered for several years.

But
then I bought these
wagons from 4Ground, seen in a couple of posts, really nice. Could be used
in the Wild West, by the way…. oh, and they have a lot of nice buildings…

So,
here I am, with two new periods/scales, and a grin on my face. Ah, who cares
about climbing gear for a tin and plastics mountain?

So,
this guy is from Black Scorpion and their Tombstone range, the Town Watch pack.
Fantastic details on these figures (actually closer to 32 mm, ‘heroic’ 28mm I guess…),
and this is the first painted one, waiting for foes and a saloon.

Paints used (Vallejo
unless noted):

Trousers
– 964 Field Blue

Hat
– Citadel Foundation Charadon Granite

Band
on hat – 836 London Grey

All
above washed with Army Painter Dark Tone Ink

Shirt
– 874 Tan Earth

Boots
and belt – Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather

Skin
– 955 Flat Flesh

Hair
– 984 Flat Earth

Gun,
buttons and bullets in belt – 865 Oily Steel

And
this was washed with Army Painter Strong Tone

Finally
the shells in his belt were picked out with 58 Brassy Brass

Yep,
it’s fun with a new period. Two more from the same set that I just need to give
a coat of varnish.

Welcome
follower Andrew Saunders with Loki’s Great Hall
blog. Very nice with lots of beautifully painted figs and nice terrain. Fully
recommended, I’m now a follower.

Thursday, 3 October 2013

I
always try to answer the questions in the competitions in Miniature
Wargames, they are usually rather hard, and I always learn something. If I know all the answers and feel the prize is something I
would like, then I usually send in my answers.

Did
so in issue 365, and I got a mail a while ago from Henry Hyde the editor
of the magazine, congratulating me to my amazing intellect (or rather, my luck
in the draw, as there were quite a few contestants who had gotten it right).

I’ve
had my eyes on Blue Moon for several years, so this prize really suited me. Of
the stuff Old Glory had available I found the “Things that go bump in the night”
28mm series, with the “I just don’t feel my age” box, something suitably pulp
for me. A great way of feeling out Blue Moon. (There are also a lot of 15mm Blue
Moon figs at Old Glory, if that is your thing).

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

The
Winter
War Kickstarter by Baker Company is moving along, and the deal offered is getting more and
more tempting. I’m in this Kickstarter with Thomas, and we are pledging £120 together,
giving us one platoon from each army plus stretch-goals. Split in two, it will
give us a lot of stuff to paint...

The
figures, weapons and vehicles are mainly done for the Winter War of 1939-40. But as all the troops can also be had with summer uniforms, most of them have a
given place in early Barbarossa, or winter 1941 in winter gear. The T-26 tank,
truck, and BA-10 armoured car could of course be used in the Red Army of 1941.
This alone should be a sweet deal even if you are just interested in Red Army
of 1941, as you will get these vehicles, and a lot of other stuff, at the £60
level.

So what’s the
situation, 6 days to go?

Add a field kitchen with crew and resting
troops for each side, as the pic above isn't updated with that yet.

If
you pledge for one platoon Red Army (£60) you’ll get around 120 soldiers plus
heavy weapons, gun, vehicles and a field kitchen in 28 mm. £0.50 per man and
everything else for free.... It’s a good, no, great, deal.

Finnish Army
platoon (£60) will give you around 120 men plus heavy weapons, guns, field
kitchen, horses and bicycles in 28mm. Again, really great.

A
couple more stretch-goals within reach; a twin-turret T-26 for the Red Army,
truck (optionally MG-armed) for both sides and finally an Aerosani (a
propeller-driven snowmobile) for both sides. After this there will be a
possibility for some more AFV:s and some Finnish heroes, and these will be
paid-for add-ons.

So, what are you
waiting for?

Finlands sak är vår!

(Slogan from the
Swedish Finland-committee first seen in December 1940, and it became the
rallying slogan for the voluntary help to Finland during the Winter War and
also for the voluntary corps. It means “The cause of Finland is ours” more or
less.)

(As a historical
aside, Swedish support to Finland in the Winter War was rather substantial. We
sent 12 Gloster Gladiators (1/3 of our fighter force, which wasn’t that great
at this point of time) and 4 Hawker Hart, rebranded with Finnish national
signs but with Swedish pilots. Also 131 000 rifles, 132 field-guns, 100 AA-guns, 85 AT-guns, 42
millions cartridges, 250 000 shells and more – a substantial part of our
inventory. Also more than 8000 volunteers. Yes, the fear of a Red Army not
stopping at the Finnish-Swedish border was great, and, well, Finland is our
neighbours and brothers/sisters.)

My rating system

5 - A masterpiece. You have to read/see/visit.4 - Really good. Strongly recommended it if it is a subject of interest, and probably worth reading/seeing/visiting if not.3 – It’s OK. If it’s a subject you’re interested in, it’s probably worth reading/seeing/visiting. Otherwise you can probably skip it.2 - Well, not really... If it’s your subject you could possibly find something in it worth your while. Otherwise stay clear.1 - Stay clear. This is a waste of your time.